The invention relates to a reception system for receiving objects and a method for operating such a reception system.
Such a reception system can be designed, for example, as a packing trough system for a product checkout system. However, such a reception system can fundamentally also be designed, for example, as a reverse vending machine (RVM in short), in which containers in the form of beverage containers subject to deposit are collected, for example, on a bottle placement table in a reverse vending region.
Such a reception system for receiving objects comprises at least one reception device for receiving objects, a conveyor device, which has at least one conveyor belt section for conveying objects in a conveyor direction in the at least one reception device, and a sensor device, which is arranged on the at least one reception device, for detecting objects in the at least one reception device.
Reception devices exist, for example, in the form of product checkout systems, in which the detection and registration of products for payment can take place substantially automatically for a customer. Such a product checkout system, for example, at a supermarket cash register, comprises a conveyor device, on which a customer can place objects and which conveys the objects into the region of a scanning device. At the scanning device, the products are scanned and detected and registered, for example, on the basis of identification codes attached to the products, such as barcodes or the like. After passing the scanning device, the products are then conveyed into the region of a reception device in the form of a packing trough, from which the customer can remove the products and can pay at a payment device.
At such a reception system in the form of a product checkout system, the operation is to be made as simple as possible for a customer—if possible without assistance by operating personnel—and should be able to be performed intuitively. For this purpose, in conventional product checkout systems, for example, sensors are arranged on conveyor belt sections of the conveyor device, which detect whether, for example, products have been placed on a conveyor belt, so that depending thereon, the conveyor belt can be started and the products can be conveyed into the region of a scanning device.
In addition, the desire exists for further automation, for example, for those systems which comprise multiple reception devices and in which an object separation device, for example, in the form of a pivotable distributing guide, is to be adjusted to guide objects into one or the other reception device. Currently, such distributing guides are usually adjusted by hand by operating personnel, which process can be subject to error and requires additional operating steps.